UTEP football: Building New Mexico provides mirror for Miners

There is an easy temptation to say that when UTEP looks across University Stadium Saturday evening, the Miners will be peering into their future.

The similarities between New Mexico and UTEP's new football programs are indeed striking.

This is coach Bob Davie's third year of bringing in a radical culture change to a struggling program, one that began with a number of players moving on — just like at UTEP.

The Lobos pound the ball on the ground behind a throwback offense and they have struggled stopping anyone on defense. Last year, at the beginning of what became a 3-9 season, they went to overtime against UTEP before winning, in Davie's words, "by less than an inch."

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"Us and UTEP are so much the same," Davie said. "At the end of last season they were playing without their quarterback, we were playing without our quarterback. We were both without our tailback. Both teams love to run the football, both struggled on defense. But both teams take a lot of pride on defense."

Both teams head into this game with a lot of confidence, confidence that comes with a caveat.

"In terms of how we do things, how we practice, we're further along," Davie said, echoing everything UTEP coaches have been preaching since spring. "We know we're better against ourselves. But nobody knows how that will translate against an opponent.

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"Are we going to be fast enough to get it done? We don't know what's going to happen. Coaches are control freaks, we can control the environment in practice, but we can't control what happens in games. That's why we are so anxious to go out and play."

Even the players strike similar themes.

"When (the new staff) first got here, we had to take care of discipline things, going to class, doing things right on and off the field," said center LaMar Bratton, a preseason all-Mountain West pick and one of two fifth-year seniors on a roster that has almost completely turned over since Davie arrived.

"Now we're not worried about that. Now we're focused on playing fast instead of thinking so much. Now we're seeing a good effort on every single play. When they got here, maybe there wasn't the effort on every single play but there is now.

"What's changed is the energy."

Where Davie sees a difference between his program and UTEP's is what he inherited. In the three years under Mike Locksley, which followed a long run of stability and relative prosperity from Rocky Long, the Lobos were arguably the most dysfunctional program in the country.

After a string of headline-grabbing off-field embarrassments and on-field collapse, Locksley was pushed out three years into a nearly unprecedented six-year deal and Davie was brought in.

"Our situation was unique," said Davie, who was an ESPN broadcaster for 10 years following his six-year tenure as head coach at Notre Dame. "The first year we had the lowest number of scholarships in the nation, but we had 12 fifth year players who were recruited by Rocky Long, we had five senior transfers who were recruited by Mike Locksley.

"We lost a lot of seniors from that first team. When we came into the second season we felt the full brunt of what the roster was.

"Nobody was left, no younger players. Now we have 112 players total on the roster, there are eight players we didn't bring in. Our third recruiting class just arrived. Now we've just started building it back up. We're more like what somebody with two years in the program would be."

As for the specific state of the program entering 2014, the Lobos are a prolific triple-option rushing team (fourth in the nation last year) that scored a lot of points whether Cole Gautsche or Clayton Mitchem was at the helm, and both return. So does a committee of running backs who all served as backups last season.

The Lobos also gave up a lot of points. That's pretty much what Davie expected after two years. What he expects next is defensive improvement.

"We have more talent, more depth," Davie said. "I'm sure UTEP feels the same way. On offense, there are some things you can do schematically to move the ball. Defense, you better line up and have some guys."

As he turns over the team, Davie believes he is getting there. One way or another, there will be more evidence of exactly where the process is Saturday night.